homage to mummenschanz

It’s the 1970s. You’re at home watching the Muppets, or maybe the local PBS affiliate, and then BAM! These completely strange dudes show up on your TV and start this weird mime show. With toilet paper. And play doh. Unlike most mime, it’s not lame. It’s kind of enchanting, and witty, and elegant, and highly cerebral. Your eight year old brain has now been rocked… by the Swiss theater group Mummenchanz (Masquerade). 

Part mime, street theater, conceptual art, and modern dance, a typical Mummenschanz show has a troop of actors silently act out plays in rather clever ways. Sometimes, the actors wear moldable clay masks. Actors literally shape their faces as the skit develops. Other times, the masks are made of household items, like toilet paper rolls or suitcases, that allow the masks to interlock. “Drawing” on other actors with sticky felt is another good one. My favorites are the giant willowy tubes rambling across the stage, like ocean kelp.

If you haven’t seen them in action, there’s a bit on youtube. Show ’em to the kids, they’ll love ’em:

• Here’s a clip from their American breakthrough on the Muppet show.
• A corny, but technically excellent, appearance at the Oscars.
• B is very touching,
• C is even better, but more abstract.
• Classic demonstration with clay masks.
• Jammin’ with Herb Alpert??

Email me if you find a clip of the giant tubes moveing about. Can’t get enough of them.